In recent years, it has become common for gas stations to also provide a car wash on site. In many cases, a cashier is the only attendant at the gas station and, in an increasing number of cases, the gas station and associated car wash are completely automated—there is no attendant on site. In other cases, the car wash stands alone, without an associated gas station. In any case, current industry practice is to manage the associated vehicle wash facility through periodic physical inspections by specially trained technicians, or “jobbers.” Jobbers are capable of safely handling the hazardous chemicals and of operating and repairing the increasingly complex equipment used in the modern vehicle wash facility. Jobbers, other technicians or attendants, and the owners of the car washes may represent “vehicle wash operators” and may operate wash facilities for a variety of vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, tractors, etc.
In operation, a vehicle wash facility applies one or more chemicals to each vehicle that is to be washed at the facility. Prior to being applied to a vehicle, each chemical is diluted using water. Dilution may occur in a solution tank, from which a point-of-use dispenser pulls the chemical(s)-water combination for application to a vehicle. Alternatively, dilution may also occur as the chemical(s) and water are being dispensed at substantially the same time by a point-of-use dispenser to a vehicle. In either case, the actual solution applied to each vehicle includes a concentration of one or more chemicals and water. A responsibility typically reserved for a vehicle wash operator relates to defining the type and amount of appropriate chemicals, and thus, concentrations thereof, that are to be applied by a vehicle wash facility to the various vehicles utilizing the facility. Currently, vehicle wash operators base this determination on the geographical location of each vehicle wash facility that they service as well as local road conditions and the current season, i.e., autumn, winter, spring or summer. A single vehicle wash operator commonly manages multiple vehicle wash facilities at various locations within a certain geographical area or region. This approach allows vehicle wash operators to profit from the economies of scale by reaping a better return on investment respective to the number of personnel and amount of specialized training required for the personnel.
However, problems arise in that this approach necessarily lengthens the period in time between service visits to a specific wash facility by a vehicle wash operator. As such, it would not be efficient in the current approach for the vehicle wash operator to take into account various factors that otherwise would be useful in determining the appropriate chemicals for use by the facility. Such factors may include, for example, a current weather pattern or actual conditions over a given period in time, the type of vehicles that use the vehicle wash facility and actual conditions of each vehicle.
In addition to the problems described in the preceding paragraph, the physical inspection method of managing more than one vehicle wash facility is inherently inefficient with respect to equipment maintenance and the management of chemical inventory. Not long after a vehicle wash operator leaves a facility, the information gathered during the physical inspection is no longer timely. If the facility unexpectedly develops a problem, such as, for example, failing to adhere to a regulatory specification, running out of a chemical or having a mechanical failure, the problem will not be detected until the next inspection or until customers complain.